We decided to spend one night at a marina last night, so I had unlimited water and power to run the washer and dryer. To take advantage of the bounty, I scrambled to finish binding one more quilt.
My least favorite part of the whole quilting process is basting; more specifically, finding the right size batting to put between the front and back of the quilt. I typically buy king- or queen-sized pieces of pre-cut batting and cut them down to lap- or kid-sized quilts. That tends to leave odd sizes left over, which I label with a bit of tape. These pieces then get joined together into "Frankenbatting" with a zig zag stitch, or ironed together with a fusible tape. Either way, it's fiddly.
I had finished piecing Let's Go To The Races back in June but didn't feel like farting around with batting pieces, so it slipped quietly into the back of the WIP pile. But in the last couple of days, I've had really good Batting Karma, and found pieces that were exactly the right size for this little quilt, and C's Canines. Basting went lickety split for them both, but I only had time to get Races actually quilted.
I did wavy, organic lines in a darker, almost bluish, gray. I thought it looked a little like zoomy tire tracks. The back is a single piece of a nice, medium blue with tiny leaves. A stripe with the same primary colors finished it off nicely. That stripe material is a shirting cotton, I think. It's only 36" wide and has a very different, smoother hand.
I washed Races it with three other quilts that were done except for the crinkling. Angular Jungle looks good; I don't think it needs more quilting on the animals.
I sewed this panel up quickly about 3 weeks ago to use up a piece of pink fleece on the back. I'm calling it Life Is Tweet because I think that's the name of the panel? It got nicely poofy in the wash and will join the other two as Project Linus donations.
Close up of one of the butterflies.
Poofy pink on the back, very snuggly.
And finally, Transformation happily emerged from the washing machine oil-spot free! Hooray!
The crinkling helps the ghost blocks stand out and almost completely hides any inconsistencies in the way I stitched the design. The secret to decent looking FMQ is shrinkage and wrinkling. Wouldn't it be nice if wrinkling made us quilters look better? Sigh. All kidding aside, I try not to be overly critical of my quilting until after the dryer.
I'm linking up to Finish It Up Friday because I can!
Oh wow! I LOVE your disappearing 4 patch! I really like that you floated it in the white. I read back a few posts and saw that you made it as a gift for your friend. I'm sure she will love it and that it will give her some comfort. On another note, I do the same thing with batting - buy the larger size and then franken-batting the leftover pieces. I never thought to label the leftover sizes and I will start doing that! It will help a lot. Thanks for the great idea!
ReplyDeleteI love how your quilts are so eclectic! Four finishes is impressive. Hurray for the washer and dryer! And yes, wrinkly is best. I always have to remind myself that a lot of quilting design disappears. It helps me relax about my quilting ability/inability. I do the frankenbatting thing, too, but always forget what I have left. I definitely need to start labeling. Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteSew glad the oil spot washed out of your quilt! Whew! It looks absolutely beautiful. Your project Linus quilts are adorable and certainly will be appreciated. You certainly accomplish a lot considering your limited available space! Enjoy your day today. XO
ReplyDeleteWhat a great use of your time in the Marina! I totally hear ya on the batting-it's not hard to put pieces together but we still procrastinate. I have bags of pieces that need going through. I did one pile this summer and it felt so good to get them used up! Your projects are wonderful. Do you ship them somewhere for Project Linus or do you find a chapter wherever you are ashore?
ReplyDeletePretty! So glad the spots came out of Transformation!
ReplyDelete